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By Larry, May 18, 2014 1:00 pm

Miss Helene Smith

Listen/Download Helene Smith – Like a Baby

Greetings all

Welcome to a new week from my outpost in the rapidly warming Northeast.

The record I bring you today was the first indicator I had – back in the day – that not everything on the Phil LA of Soul imprint was from Philadelphia.

I first heard of Helene Smith because of her heavily sweated ‘You Got To Be a Man’,which a certain Mr Prince Rogers Nelson borrowed from to create the song ‘Kiss’.

Smith was a Florida-based singer who worked with Willie Clarke and Clarence Reid and got her start recording as a backing vocalist for Betty Wright (in the early days of that singer’s career).

She originally recorded the tune ‘Like a Baby’ as her first 45 for the Miami label Deep City in 1966.

The song was licensed by Phil LA of Soul and released there in 1967.

‘Like a Baby’ is a superb bit of sweet soul. Taken at a slow pace, with relatively spare bass, piano, guitar and drums, the coed backup vocals provide contrast to Smith’s high voice.

The song didn’t make a dent in the charts, though its flipside, the ballad ‘A Woman Will Do Wrong’ was an R&B Top 20 hit in 1967.

Smith went on to record a couple of 45s for Phil LA of Soul between 1967 and 1969, and then two more for the TK subsidiary Dash in 1971 and 1972.

After that the trail goes cold.

You can pick up a number of her tracks on the Numero Group’s comp Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label, available on iTunes or on CD.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (9)

By Larry, May 15, 2014 11:41 am

Aretha Franklin

Listen/Download Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)

NOTE: Our web host has been experiencing major tech problems since yesterday (5/14). This caused Funky16Corners to be offline completely for several hours last night and this morning.

Though the site is currently up there is no ETA on full restoration of services, so the possibility of another outage is still there.

Please bear with me and hopefully everything will be ok soon.

Thanks

Larry

Greetings all

The end of the week is nigh, so I will take this opportunity to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 in the archive here at the blog.

I should also let you know that the Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter and Pledge Drive will be arriving in a few weeks. Once again we’ll have a stellar line up of DJs and mixes, including many of the regulars from past Allnighters and some new blood as well. I’m getting a new Funky16Corners badge made for donors, and there will be some prize giveaways as well. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more details coming soon!

I recently had the opportunity to check out the ‘Muscle Shoals’ documentary. I had missed it in the theaters, thought I’d catch it on Netflix, but lo and behold it popped up on PBS a few weeks back.

I’d heard a lot about the film – some good, some bad – but so much of the music I love was created in those environs I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out.

There were parts of the film that were genuinely moving, and there was a lot of exciting music, but by the time the movie was over, and I’d survived the idiotic rambling of Bono (can we have some kind of a moratorium on his pontificating in documentaries?), I was left oddly unsatisfied.

The film seems based on a kind of ‘producer as auteur’ approach, focusing on Rick Hall, which is all well and good until you discover that it is to the detriment of the musicians that worked for him and were largely responsible for anything you might consider a Muscle Shoals sound.

I found the fact that Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and the Swampers were left floating in Hall’s wake galling.

That, and the fact that my recent reading of Joel Selvin’s ‘Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues’ and Robert Gordon’s ‘Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion’ had done nothing but lower my already poor opinion of Jerry Wexler (a prominent voice in the history of Muscle Shoals, and the film) gnawed at me through the viewing.

That, and the fact that the later part of the film spends too much time focusing on the birth of Southern rock ended up leaving me cold.

This is not to say that the film is without merit, nor would I suggest you avoid it (there’s too much good stuff in there to dismiss it outright).

What I would do, is suggest that you go out and get yourself a copy of Peter Guralnick’s indispensable ‘Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom’, which is not only the finest book I’ve ever read about Southern soul (or soul music in general), but would serve as an important companion piece to ‘Muscle Shoals’.

Guralnick’s book spends a decent amount of time explaining how these white musicians, especially Penn and Oldham, got to the point where they were so important to the creation of some of the finest rhythm and blues and soul music of the classic era.

The same can be said about Gordon’s tome, though in that case specifically about the same phenomenon at Stax in Memphis.

That all said, one of my favorite moments in the film concerned Wexler taking Aretha Franklin down to Muscle Shoals. Franklin had recorded several albums for Columbia following her transition from gospel to secular music.

She left that label for Atlantic in 1967 and Wexler, who had already had success recording Wilson Pickett at Muscle Shoals, thought that Franklin would flourish in the same environment.

He had no idea.

The album she recorded there (and also at Atlantic’s NYC studio) – her first for Atlantic – was both an artistic and commercial breakthrough.

‘I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You’ provided Aretha with dynamite material (the LP included her epic reading of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’, her reworking of Ray Sharpe’s ‘Help Me’ as ‘Save Me’) and a remarkably sympatico backing group.

The tune I bring you today was one of two big hits for Franklin written by Ronnie Shannon (the second being ‘Baby I Love You’).

One of the pivotal scenes in ‘Muscle Shoals’ describes the recording of ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’. Franklin and the band had apparently been struggling to find the right vibe, until Spooner Oldham sat down at the electric piano and whipped out the riff that opens the record.

If you need proof that the essence of an entire sound can be distilled into one particular moment, one need only listen to the slow rolling piano riff at the beginning of this record. Oldham’s piano, paired with the bass drum, snare and closed hi-hat is pure soul, with one foot firmly in the amen corner.

When Aretha comes in – pure perfection – followed by the organ (very subtle) and eventually the acoustic piano and the horn section shifting gears, what you’re hearing is pure brilliance.

Though it’s less than three minutes long, the combination of the artful layering of the instruments, coupled with Franklin’s powerful, authoritative reading of the lyric gives ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’ an epic depth that places it among the finest recordings of the classic soul era.

So dig it, educate yourself (or someone who needs it) with a good music book (and maybe a movie) and I’ll see you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, May 11, 2014 10:42 am

Dave says, ‘Keep wearing sweaters like this and some day you’ll be funky, too!’

Listen/Download Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez – Twang Taang

Greetings all

Welcome to another week of musical stuff here at Rancho Del Funky16Corners.

The tune I bring you today is something from a little bit later in the discography of one David Clowney, better known to one and all as Dave ‘Baby Cortez’.

Cortez, who had his first hit in 1959 with ‘The Happy Organ’ was one of the most interesting performers associated with organ sounds in the classic era.

He was at ease working in the gray area between pop and soul, often bouncing between R&B (like the savage ‘Hurricane’ from 1960) to soul (like ‘Countdown’ from 1965) to funk (like ‘I Turned You On’ from 1970).

He was mainly an organist, but also recorded as a vocalist from time to time, having gotten his start singing doowop in the 50s.

Cortez spent the early part of his career recording for Clock Records, then spending most of the 1960s bouncing between Mercury, Chess, and Roulette before a short period working under the aegis of the Isley Brothers on T-Neck.

The tune I bring you today is from a brief, two-single run Cortez did with the Sound Pak label in 1971.

Sound Pak was, like Clock Records the brainchild of James J. Kriegsmann (who is listed on many Cortez tunes – perhaps dubiously – as co-writer). If that name is familiar it is because he is better known as one of the premier promo photographers of performing artists in the 50s, 60s and 70s, his famous logo appearing on countless glossy photos.

‘Twang Taang’ is a funky vocal, heavily influenced by his time in proximity to the Isley’s organization. The tune is marked by heavy bass, horns and a great vocal by Cortez. I also dig the guitar solo, with just the right amount of fuzz dialed up.

Cortez went on to record for All Platinum through the mid-70s,before going off the grid.

He returned in 2011 to record an LP for Norton, backed by none other than Lonnie Youngblood.

I hope you dig the track, and Ill see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, May 8, 2014 12:08 pm

Lonnie Youngblood

Listen/Download Lonnie Youngblood – African Twist Pt1

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so I must remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can keep upby subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes or grabbing yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is an old favorite of mine.

The name Lonnie Youngblood should be a very familiar one to fans of funk and soul.

The vocalist/saxophonist recorded some excellent 45s under his own name – while working as a backing musician for many soul and blues artists – during the 1960s.

Some of these – in particular the 45s he recorded for Fairmount, ‘Go Go Shoes’ and ‘Soul Food’ – are, in addition to their own excellence, sweated by fans of the back up guitarist on the sessions, a certain James Marshall Hendrix.

Today’s selection, ‘African Twist Pt1’ was recorded for the Loma label in 1967. It was the first of Youngblood’s two 45s for the label (the second being 1968’s ‘Roll With the Punches’) and is a wild bit of funky soul.

Layered with fake crowd noises, ‘African Twist Pt1’ features a crazed lead vocal by Youngblood, some excellent guitar and percussion and a wailing horn section.

Youngblood went to to record several albums in the 1970s, and continues to perform today.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, May 1, 2014 10:59 am

Say what,now?

Listen/Download Plookie McCline – Gorilla Walk

Greetings all

The week is nearing its inevitable conclusion, so that means it’s time to remind you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will return once again to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9Pm on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with things by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a slice of gritty, slightly deranged R&B from the streets of Chicago.

I picked up this 45 years ago during the early days of my Jerry-O obsession, when I cast my dragnet far and wide, picking up whatever I could find associated with the master.

Charles ‘Plookie’ McCline is something of a mystery (he doesn’t even get a mention in Robert Pruter’s comprehensive ‘Chicago Soul’). He appears to have recorded a handful of 45s for the Jerry-O/Larry-O labels around 1963, some of which were also issued under the name ‘Willie Logan and the Plaids’.

Today’s selection, which was released late in 1963 was the flipside of ‘Uncle Willy’, a tune no doubt meant to tie in to the local dance craze of the same name.

As fine as that side is, you simply must flip it over to wrap your ears around one of the roughest, craziest bits of Chicago madness ever pressed into wax.

There are points where ‘Gorilla Walk’ sounds like it was lifted from the soundtrack of one of those old Bela Lugosi tropical zombie movies.

To describe the proceedings as ‘lo-fi’ would be both accurate and charitable.

It sounds like the band and the singers were crammed into a broom closet with equipment from the early days of sound recording*.

The backing vocals are – not to put too fine a point on it – wailed, and the saxophone sounds like it and its player had only a passing acquaintance.

The lead vocal by Mr McCline is pretty straight ahead, and the guitar is pretty groovy too.

Make sure to slap this one on the next time you’re in the midst of a drunken mob.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 *Interestingly enough, the production is credited to Jerry-O and the arrangment to Milt Bland aka Monk Higgins!

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, April 29, 2014 12:09 pm

Listen/Download The Moods – King Hustler

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of the week.

The tune I bring you today is a very funky number by some Volcanos in transition.

At some point after they recorded their Harthon 45s (the one with the funky b-sides), and the departure of Gene Faith to go solo, but before they would emerge as the Trammps, the gentlemen of the Volcanos would record two (and a half) 45s as the Moods.

What information I have been able to find seems to place the 45s in question around 1970.

The group released three 45s.

The first – ‘Rainmaker’ b/w ‘Lady Rain’ came out on Wand in 1970.

The one you see before you today, ‘King Hustler’ b/w ‘Hustling’ was released on the local Philly label (maybe one-off) Reddog that same year.

The third – on Scepter – re-used ‘King Hustler’ on the a-side, placing it with a new flipside, ‘With a Woman’.

‘King Hustler’ is a great, hard-edged, Blaxploitation groover that is reminiscent of some of the heavier things the Temptations were laying down around the same time.

The song – co-written by Sherman Marshall and Len Barry – features lyrics that reference Philadelphia’s famous South Street, and going to see ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ at the movies (!?).

The group would reconvene as the Trammps two years later.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 24, 2014 1:14 pm

Toby Lark

Listen/Download Toby Lark – Shake a Hand

Greetings all

The end of the week is near, so I will take a moment to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there to dig it at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcst in iTunes, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a very groovy, very funky number by a singer you probably know under another name.

I can’t remember exactly when or where I picked up the 45 you see before you today, but I probably grabbed it because the name of the singer rang a bell.

As it turns out, when I saw the name Toby Lark, I was probably thinking of the name Tobi Legend, which is a good thing, since as it turns out, they are both the same person.

Bessie Grace Gupton was born in Alabama but grew up in Detroit.

She spent most of her early years performing gospel, before going to work as a backing singer for BB King.

She first recorded for Jay Pee records in the early 60s as Bessie Watson, changing her name to Tobi Lark in 1964.

She would record for the Palmer, Topper and USD labels under that name before signing with Mala in 1968 and recording under the name Tobi Legend.

It was under that name that she waxed the Northern Soul classic (one of the famous ‘Three Before Eight’) ‘Time Will Pass You By’.

The following year found her recording under the name on today’s selection, Toby Lark.

‘Shake a Hand’ is a funky number, with Lark dipping back into her gospel roots, singing in a deeper, throatier style. The song, written by Joe Morris and first recorded in 1953 by Faye Adams (much slower, and a huge R&B hit), and covered over the years by everyone from Little Richard, to Magic Sam, to Elvis Presley.

She recorded two more 45s for Cotillion, and eventually settled in Canada, where she continues to perform.

I hope you dig the track,and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, April 22, 2014 11:20 am

Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton

Listen/Download Big Mama Thornton – Wade In the Water

UPDATE: I just found out that Cultures of Soul has just reissued ‘Wade In the Water’ on 45 as part of the Andy Smith’s Jam Up Twist box set. It’s a great collection (put together by a great DJ) and a fantastic way to get this burner – among others – on 45.

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here and so in service of defeating the doldrums, I bring you something guaranteed to melt your face, and/or make your hair stand on end.

I do not recall where I first heard Big Mama Thornton’s epic reading of ‘Wade In the Water’ but I do remember being knocked back on my heels.

I have already mentioned in this space that the song in question is a big favorite of mine, and as such I like to pick up new versions wherever I find them.

What is most interesting is the fact that ‘Wade In the Water’ is at its base a gospel song with roots in the underground railroad.

Though is has been rerecorded in a number of non-gospel settings, most of those (or at least the ones I’m familiar with) were usually instrumental (though the rock version by Clover is a marked exception).

The version you see before you today, by Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton takes the song, strips it down to a skeletal framework (tossing the ‘gospel’ out the window) and rebuilds it as something else entirely.

Most people know of Big Mama Thornton for her original recordings of ‘Hound Dog’ (later done by Elvis) and ‘Ball and Chain’ (turned into a showcase by Janis Joplin).

Thornton. A singer, harp player and drummer had been recording blues and R&B since the early 1950s.

By the mid-1960s she had relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, and started recording for Arhoolie records.

She recorded ‘Wade In the Water’ in 1968, and it was released as a 45 (rare and expensive) but also released on the compilation ‘Ball and Chain’ (released in 1968 and 1974 and much less expensive).

Her version burns rubber like a top fuel dragster (one friend has referred to it as ‘the punk rock version’) and just gets faster and harder as it goes on. Big Mama wails, and the guitar solo by Bee Houston is killer.

It’s hard to listen to a record this elemental and singularly powerful without wondering why it wasn’t a hit.

The likely explanation is that it was a record ‘out of time’. It is light years heavier than most rock music from the time, and I can’t imagine what it must have sounded like to the blues fest crowds that she was playing to at the time.

It’s a lot closer to the MC5 than it is to Muddy Waters.

This, in addition to the fact that lyrically, Thornton divorces the song completely from its gospel roots, choosing instead to rebuild the lyrics as a loose, bluesy riff serving only to deliver her remarkable voice. It’s as if someone harnessed a hurricane and pressed it into the grooves of a record.

Heavy, heavy stuff.

I hope you dig it as much as I do.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, April 20, 2014 11:21 am

The good stuff…

Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – Lover and a Friend (Capitol)
Eddie Bo – Hook and Sling Pt1 (Scram)
Chuck Carbo – Can I Be Your Squeeze (Canyon)

Listen/Download Dust & Grooves Party Set: A Taste of the Bo-Sound

The listening party (Eilon Paz on the floor, DJ Bongohead on the right)

The massive sound system brought in for the occasion

DJ Pat James Longo bringing the heat

The assembled multitudes soaking in the sounds

Yours truly behind the decks
(thanks to Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus for snapping the pic)

Eddie and Inez under the needle

DJ Rebecca Birmingham

All photos by Larry Grogan/Funky16Corners

Greetings all

I hope the new week and the onset of spring (at last) finds you all well.

This Saturday I was very proud to participate in the opening party for the Dust & Grooves book (which I just happen to appear in, alongside over one hundred other wax wranglers).

The work of photographer Eilon Paz (with production coordination by may man Jamison Harvey, aka DJ Prestige of Fleamarket Funk), Dust & Grooves started out as a photo site, and over the years evolved into a book project that encompassed a world tour.

The party was held at the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn, NY, right underneath the Manhattan Bridge.

There was a listening party (Quincy Jones‘ ‘Walking In Space’), sets by 20 of the NY area’s finest DJs and even some live music.

If you haven’t seen the book, it is truly a thing to behold. A huge, beautifully designed and printed collection of photographs and interviews with people deep inside the vinyl culture, including DJs, collectors, historian/archivists, and label owners.

This post includes my set from the show (we were each allotted 10 minute sets, so I devoted mine to the sounds of Eddie Bo, just like my original photo set/interview on the Dust & Grooves site).

I’m also including some pics from the event (above).

I got to meet some Facebook friends in person, and made some new friends as well.

It was a real gas, and something I was very happy to be a part of.

Dig it all, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 17, 2014 2:53 pm

Joe Zawinul

Listen/Download – Joe Zawinul – The Soul of a Village (45 Edit)

Greetings all.

The track you see before you today first appeared here at Funky16Corners back in August of 2010.

It is a very groovy one, indeed, and I thought it would fit in nicely beside both the mixes I posted this week.

Don’t forget to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or subscribe to it as podcast in iTunes.

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The middle of the week is here, and I may be tired, my nerves may be frayed, my brain may want to shut off, but I have a craving for some of that deep, deep stuff, so here we go.

The record I lay before you today is something I first heard during a long ago Asbury Park 45 Sessions, with my man Vincent the Soul Chef working the wheels du steel.

As I’ve said here many times before, the 45 Sessions are without fail, a DJs paradise, with the selectors slipping 45s under the needle that have the heads running up to the turntables to see what’s going on.

This blog has seen many, MANY sides that I first heard at the Lanes, and of we ever get it back up to speed, this will surely continue.

Anyway, when Vincent pulled this one out of his record box, and I heard the laid back but funky drums, and the electric piano (you know I love me some electric piano), and the spooky strings, my spidey sense started tingling, and when I found out that the music I was hearing had been created by none other than Joe Zawinul, I set out to find a copy of my own.

This took a little longer than I expected, and while I was waiting I pulled down the entire album from which it originated – ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ – and was surprised to discover that there wasn’t much on that album that resembled the 45 I had heard (though the flip side of this 45, an edit of the track ‘Lord Lord Lord’ has a decided gospel edge).

For those of you to whom the term ‘Third Stream’ doesn’t ring any bells, I’ll tell you that it was affixed to classically influenced jazz in the 50s and 60s by folks like John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. There’s a lot of string-based action on ‘Rise and Fall..’ but the overall effect is much more jazz than classical.

Zawinul (and the name should be very familiar) was the Austrian born pianist who made his mark in Cannonball Adderley’s band (Zawinul composed ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Country Preacher’ among others) , moving on to work with Miles Davis (on ‘In a Silent Way’), and then eventually as one of the founding members of Weather Report.

‘Rise of the Third Stream’ was recorded in 1968 and was only Zawinul’s second solo effort in 10 years. It came a year before his work on ‘In a Silent Way’, and echoes of ‘Soul of a Village’ can be heard in his work with Davis.

Though the 45 lists the piece as only ‘Soul of a Village’, the music you’re hearing is actually an edited version of ‘Soul of a Village Pt2’, having been preceded on the album by just over two minutes of prepared piano and strings droning in an approximation of an Indian raga.

The 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ has such a perfect, self-contained vibe that I’m torn as to whether you need to hear both parts. The album is overall a much more challenging listening experience than the 45, but if serious jazz is your bag, I’d suggest you seek it out.

That said, the 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ (roughly one and a half minutes shorter than the Pt2 on the LP) is a slice of groove perfection. It opens (again) with the drone, before Zawinul comes in with the electric piano, followed by funky drums (either Roy McCurdy or Freddie Waits), Jimmy Owens’ muted trumpet, and even more strings, and the really groovy thing is that the string section actually swings along with the drums.

The tune was written (like almost every track on the album, save one) by saxophonist/arranger William Fischer, who as far as I can tell was first and foremost a classical composer/musician, and as a result ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ must be considered a  collaborative work between Fischer and Zawinul (a prolific composer in his own right).

This is serious ‘head’ music, in that it both spins around the inside of the cranium for full, mystical effect, but also compels the head to nod with the rhythm. I wouldn’t go as far as to suggest that anyone not sufficiently intoxicated might get up to dance, but it’s not entirely out of the question.

A truly unique and captivating record, and I hope you dig it.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 15, 2014 7:19 pm

Nina Simone – Seeline Woman (Philips) / Dorothy Morrison – Rain (Elektra) / Paul Jones – Not Before Time (Bell) / Titanic – Sultana (Epic) / Candido – Jingo (Salsoul) / Doc Severinson – Footprints of the Giant (edit) (Command) / Dixie Cups – Two Way Poc A Way (ABC) / Area Code 615 – Stone Fox Chase (Polydor) / Quartette Tres Bien – Boss Tres Bien (Decca) / Booker T and the MGs – Melting Pot (Stax) / The Peddlers – Impressions Pt1 (Philips) / Sly Stone – Rock Dirge (Woodcock) / Fatback – Going To See My Baby (Perception) / Brother Jack McDuff – Hunk of Funk (Blue Note) / Manu Dibango – New Bell (Atlantic)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: The Sound of the Drum

Greetings all

As promised on Monday, I come to you midweek with yet another new mix.

This one was created at the behest of my man Studebaker Hawk, and first appeared on his Acapulco Nights radio show on WMUA-FM, 91.1 in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This is another one of those mixes that was percolating for a long time, coming to life the first time I heard Nina Simone’s ‘Seeline Woman’ and then moving ahead when I found the Paul Jones b-side you hear in the mix.

I should also mention – though some of the deeper heads will pick up on it when they see the set list – that this mix owes a big debt to one of the pioneers of DJ/dance culture, David Mancuso.

It was Mancuso’s deep and far ranging tastes that brought all kinds of unusual and unexpected records onto the dance floor of his legendary Loft parties, some of which are included in this mix.

It’s called ‘The Sound of the Drum’ because that’s the thread connecting all of these records, whether it’s the insistent beat of hand drumming, the snap of a master on the traps (dig that Quartette Tres Bien!), or just a wicked break.

So slap on your headphones and dig in.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, April 13, 2014 3:41 pm

The Mothership,now boarding…

Parliament/Intro
Afro-Samurai
Dick Hyman – Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose
Capt Sisko
Jimi Hendrix – 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
Morpheus/1
Scientist – The Dark Secret of the Box
Morpheus/2
Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations
Gene Harris – Don’t Call Me Ni**er Whitey
The Brother From Another Planet
Phil Upchurch – Elektrik
Lando Calrissian
Electrostats – 21st Century Kenya
Mace Windu
Isaac Redd Holt Unlimited – Listen to the Drums
Darth Vader
Roots Radics Band – Son of Darth Vader
Mr Spock/Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Brother Jack McDuff – Moon Rappin’ (Edit)
Lt Uhura
Rotary Connection – Tales of Brave Ulysses
Danger Mouse/Murs/Free Design – To a Black Boy
Shuggie Otis – Pling!
EddieHarris feat Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Were the Silver Cycles (F16C Mash)
Sun Ra

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: The Mothership Mix

Greetings all

Welcome to the new week.

I have something very groovy for you today.

A while back, one of my favorite Facebook-made acquaintances, the author Bill Campbell told me that he was assembling an anthology of afrofuturistic stories, and was thinking about using a mix as part of the Indiegogo campaign.

That anthology, ‘Mothership: Tales From Afrofuturism and Beyond’ is very, very cool, and I would suggest you avail yourself of a copy either in paper, or digital form. Make sure to check out the Rosarium Publishing web site as well.

Always looking for an interesting challenge, I offered my services in furtherance of that goal, and Bill said yes.

The mix you see before you is one of those that I had rolling around the back alleys of my mind for a long time before I actually stated pulling out records, digging for drops etc.

The concept of afrofuturism is especially intriguing, and the thought of finding its application in musical form really got me thinking.

There are musicians included in this mix that worked the conceptual side of things rather directly, like Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton, and some that worked their way into the groove stylistically (Eddie Harris, Shuggie Otis) and others that just created a specific piece of music that seemed destined for inclusion in the mix (Dick Hyman’s epic reworking of JB for instance).

I was trying to create a vibe – which is what you ought to be doing with a mix, anyway – but in this instance, it was far removed from the dance floor and drilled deep inside the head (via the ears, naturally).

This is definitely one for the headphones, trippy, often deep, sometimes weird and in several spots traveling outside the known boundaries of the Funky16Corners universe.

I’m proud to have been given the opportunity to work with Bill, and very happy with the mix.

I hope you dig it too.

I’ll be back later in the week with another brand new mix.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.